AutoConf: New Algorithm for Reconfiguration of Cyber-Physical Production Systems

The increasing size and complexity of cyber-physical production systems (CPPS) lead to an increasing number of faults, such as broken components or interrupted connections. Nowadays, faults are handled manually, which is time-consuming because for most operators mapping from symptoms (i.e., warnings) to repair instructions is rather difficult. To enable CPPS to adapt to faults autonomously, reconfiguration, i.e., the identification of a new configuration that allows either reestablishing production or a safe shutdown, is necessary. This article addresses the reconfiguration problem of CPPS and presents a novel algorithm called AutoConf. AutoConf operates on a hybrid automaton that models the CPPS and a specification of the controller to construct a QSM. This QSM is based on propositional logic and represents the CPPS in the reconfiguration context. Evaluations on an industrial use case and simulations from process engineering illustrate the effectiveness and examine the scalability of AutoConf.